The Adventures of Morgan Jones
by CreativeSprite
Summary: Summery: Morgan is a grumpy Goth and her little sister is just the opposite. It’s bad enough that they get stuck in Middle Earth together but what happens when they get attacked by Mary Sue hunters? Can she convince them she’s innocent?
1. Toto we sure ain't in Kansas

Summery: Morgan is a grumpy Goth and her little sister is just the opposite. It's bad enough that they get stuck in Middle Earth together but what happens when they get attacked by Mary Sue hunters? Can she convince them she's innocent? Not you typical "girl lands in Middle Earth story."

Note from the Author: This story is set in Australia. In one of my other stories I was criticised for not using American la English The fact that I am not American might explain it but none the less I can understand the frustration of not being able to understand anything in a story. If I use a word that is not American I will have a number in brackets next to it to match it to a translation at the end of the chapter so I don't confuse anyone. I'm sorry about the paragraphs, they don't seem to be working

Chapter 1

"This is going to be super fun! Don't you think so kids?" My mum asked. She reminds me of Bree from desperate housewives and when she reached forty something she became so terrified of aging that she desperately tries to be cool by wearing whatever the stars are wearing, puts on way too much make up and uses words like "radical" and "super".

"Yeah, super fun!" My bratty air headed sister cheered. She's eight years old and has the brain power of a sponge.

"What do you think Morgan?" Mum tried to get a response from me. All she got was a groan.

"Why can't you be more like your sister Morgan?" My dad asked seriously. He's a science teacher and as a result he is so mind crushingly boring I'd rather poke out my own eyes with a stick than sit in class room with him. Just picture Mr Brady mixed with the camp leader from the Adams family movie and you will have my dad. I just stared out the window; I think my black "no comment" shirt said it all. My parents call me a Goth. I'm not a goth or Emo, I just have purple streaked black hair, wear a lot of black and complain but my dad can't see something out of the ordinary without putting a label on it.

"Isn't this great?" Dad joined mum in her never ending quest to make me puke. "It's a new town, new school, new kids…"

"Dad." I interrupted. "You're starting to sound like one of those dads from a cheesy American movie."

"Really?" He asked with vague interest. "Which one?"

"You know the one where the family moves to a new town and everyone's all hyped about it." I can't count how many Goosebumps book started with a family moving to a new town, a really dumb way to begin a story if you ask me. Really, both of my parents were starting to sound like something from the Brady Bunch. In my sweetest dreams I imagined hunting down the writers of that show with a flamethrower.

"When we get there, I want to go exploring!" Nicole was so enthusiastic I wanted to vomit. If this were a TV show I'd be laughing at the bad writing. She cuddled her white kitten Victoria.

"Victoria wants to go exploring, don't you Vicky?" Oh puke, I hate baby talk. From somewhere in the back my cat growled with irritation, she hates being locked up. She's a grumpy old girl with fluffy grey fur. Mum got the DVD version of Cats and made us watch it. She was so inspired she took us to the RSPCA (1) and got us to choose our own feline companion. Needless to say Nicole loved the show; she'd walk around with a bucket on her head if it would make mum happy she even named her kitten after one of the characters. I didn't like it much, the crime boss was interesting but Rum Tum Tugger was just plain annoying and the rest were just plain dumb. And the way they drooled over the fat leader guy? Ick. I've never liked musicals. I wanted to name my cat Dracula but mum overruled me and named her Grizzabella. I couldn't stand Grizzabella in the musical, she just spends the whole tome pissing and moaning about how horrible her life is. Well great, why didn't she just jump off a bridge and do everyone a favour? No wonder the other cats sent her to heaven, they wouldn't have gotten rid of her if they hadn't. Sure I complain about my life but I know it could be worse and I'm not going to kill myself any time soon. The closest I've ever came to suicide was the time dad got drunk at last year's Christmas party and started singing at the top of his terrible voice.

"Here we are." Dad said as he turned into the driveway. "Our new home."

"Oh really I wouldn't have guessed." I replied sarcastically. "I thought it was a coal mine."

"Morgan." Mum told me off in a stern voice. "You seriously need to change your attitude problem young lady."

"Blah." I replied.

"Mum, can I help you bring in the shopping?" Nicole begged and not for the first time (or the last) I felt like smacking her head against the wall. Little suck up.

"Alright, but leave the cold things." Years ago dad bought a weird little portable fridge the size of an esky. (2) I had no idea what he was planning on doing with it but he said "just in case." Well that's my dad for you; he'd take a life jacket to the desert if someone suggested it would come in handy.

For the first time I looked up the house. My ideal place would have been in the mountains surrounded by wilderness but like complete knob heads my family insisted on living in a development area where wilderness was being cut down to make way for houses. The house was a cute little three bedroom place; it looked more like a holiday house rather than a place to live. I wondered how long it would take before we drove each other insane.

"Now girls, you'll have to decide on bedrooms because only one of them has a lock."

"I bag it." I desperately needed a lock, the last time Nicole got into my room she stole my favourite necklace and held it ransom.

"I want that room too." Nicole wined. Grrr, stupid brat didn't want the room, she just wanted to make sure I didn't get it. She has her bedroom door open most of the time anyway, what would she need a lock for?"

"But I'm doing the school certificate (3) this year and I need to study in peace." I argued and almost sounded sincere.

"Well that settles it; Morgan gets the room with the lock." Finally mum's obsession with my school marks came in handy.

"Morgan, help us bring the stuff in." Nicole sneered, unhappy that she didn't get her own way for once. I stuck out my tongue at her as a grabbed a box and went inside.

Mum blabbed on about the history of the place while I put food in the cupboards.

"An old woman used to live here on her own, a bit big for one person don't you think?" Blah bah blah, didn't she ever stop talking?

"Maybe all her relatives died." I suggested. "Maybe she woke up one day and they'd all croaked it simultaneously."

Surprisingly Nicole laughed but mum glared at us.

"Nicole! Morgan! That's a horrible thing to say." She didn't appreciate my sense of humour, never did. Her lecture was interrupted by the rumble of a truck.

"That must be the movers." She announced happily.

I looked around my room, no longer feeling like I was the plane of the losers. The bed frame was black and the doona cover was purple. I had wanted blood red but mum didn't think it was a good idea. On one wall hung my wolf poster, I had wanted a poster I saw of the grim reaper holding a bleeding skull but yet again mum overruled me. She wanted me to have one of a cute little kitten. We negotiated until I was allowed a wolf one on the condition I got the one that had wolf puppies in it. I secretly liked the picture, it was easy to picture myself as a part of it. I cold imagine myself as a wolf running free though a cold, moonlit forest; no rules, no parents, nothing holding me back.

_And definitely no Nicole _I thought as I heard Britney Spears blasting form her room. I had only a single glance inside her room but it was enough to know that it was plastered in pink and her bed covered in soft toys. Gag. The only fluffy thing in my room was Grizzy and she was asleep on my bed. We might both be grumpy but we co-exist happily on the rule that I feed her and she ignores me.

My bookshelves contained things like the Ancient Future trilogy by Tracy Harding and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Most of my books were Christmas and birthday present and were barely read. Nicole's shelves held more toys, Harry Potter books and a whole library of books by Jacqueline Wilson. I read one of the Harry Potter books once and gave up. Though JK Rowling is a good writer Harry came off as a bit of a dork and I always secretly hoped that Snape would force feed him poison but no such luck.

"Morgan!" Nicole called. "I want to go exploring but everyone else is busy and I can't go alone, will you come?"

No.

"Or you can stay here and help me organise my cd collection." Dad suggested.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

What on earth was I thinking? Surely listening to dad go on about "the good old days" was better than this. I like the wilderness just fine but it was sad to see it all getting cut down and not to mention being alone with Nicole who insisted on showing me every "cool" stick, rock and leaf she found.

"Oh look this one's really pretty."

"Yes, it's nice."

She tugged on my hands, trying to get me to leave the safety of the rock I was sitting on.

"Come on Morgan."

"Okay." I knew I had to be nice to her or Nicole would tell mum I was mean and she'd ground me.

"Weeeeeee!" She ran through the trees with her arms outstretched like a plane. Fresh air always does that to her, I have no idea why.

I saw her slowly disappear as she took off down a hill.

"Hey wait up!" As much as I couldn't stand the adorable little brat I'd feel bad if something happened to her, that and I didn't' want to get lost.

"Morgan, come and see what I found!"

I couldn't believe it. A cave. It was nestled between two hills. I could tell form the dried up mud and the animal footprints that this was once a creek and a popular drinking spot before the drought.

"I wanna explore." Nicole was as stubborn as a brick wall and just as smart.

"I don't think that's such a smart idea, there could be snakes and spiders in there."

"Really? Cool!" She took off before I could stop her. The only time I meet a little girl who isn't afraid of snakes an spiders and she just has to be my little sister good n you god, you owe me one.

"Come on Morgan!"

Hey god, make that a hundred.

In my pocket I had a key ring with a miniature torch (4) dad had given me on my fifteenth birthday a year ago. I told you he's obsessed with the "potentially useful" crap he always buys. Who knew he would be right for once?

The cave was interesting if a bit creepy. The floor was once wet from the dried up water and the walls glittered.

"Hey Morgan, come and look at this, I think I've found some cave paintings."

I looked where she was pointing.

"Somehow I doubt that cavemen painted pictures of flying saucers. It's just vandals."

"Oh she said. "is that was it is? You never know, maybe a flying saucer did land here thousands of years ago."

There was something wrong with that child and it was my life mission to find out what.

"Doubt it."

She was quiet for a few seconds.

"This is a really big cave." She said eventually. "Is that light I see?"

"It's probably just the torch reflecting off the walls."

"No I don't think so." She said certainly and she rushed off again. I seriously considered putting a leash on that child.

"Morgan!" She called and for a moment I was afraid that she had been bitten by something.

"Oh Morgan, come and see!" I started to walk faster, there was something in her voice that old me the she had really found something, something more important than just a sparkly roc. As the light grew bigger I realised the cave had a back exit.

"Big deal, the cave has a back door."

"No, this side is different." She insisted. "Can't you feel it?"

"It's colder." I untied my jumper (5) from around my waist and put it on.

"The trees are different as well." I continued. 'Normally these trees are only found in Europe, Canada and USA." The sun had changed position as well. When we entered the cave the sun had been in the middle of the sky to show midday but now it had moved further west to indicate mid afternoon which was strange because both of our watches still said it was half past twelve.

"Where are we?" She asked as if she expected me to have all of the answers.

"I don't know but I think we should go back."

We turned around only to find that the cave had disappeared.

"Oh shit."

"I'm going to tell mum you said a bad word." Nicole giggled.

_Yeah, if we ever get home again_

"I think we have bigger problems right now."

"Like what?"

"Well for starters we're ion a strange place. We appear to have lost at least four hours of the day but out watches haven't changed and now we can't get back."

'Oh." She said softly and she looked like she was going to cry.

"We should probably look around, hopefully there might be some people around." I tried to give her some hope.

_Toto we sure ain't in Kansas_

We were careful as we walked around as if at any moment a knife could fly out and kill us or something. You could never be too careful. I didn't want to admit that anything strange had happened and my brain desperately searched for a logical explanation. Sixteen years of living with a science teacher will do that to you. I always believed in ghosts and stuff but I never thought something like that would ever happen to me. I was about to suggest we give up when I heard a scream and something g jumped at us from the trees above.

"Die Mary Sue scum!"

(1) The RSPCA is the Royal Society for the prevention of cruelty to Animals, you can adopt pets here. I'm sure you've probably heard of this place but I thought I'd do this just in case.

(2) An esky is a small box you put drinks and stuff in when you want to keep them cold if you're going something. I think Americans call it a cooler, I'm not sure.

(3) The school certificate is the exams after year 10. The Higher School certificate is the exams after year 12 at the end of high school.

(4) Flashlight

(5) Sweater


	2. Meeting the hunters

Dark: The fact that Morgan doesn't describe herself as Goth is a character flaw. I know she's Goth and I say so in the summery but her problem is that she's so desperate to avoid labels that she just can't face up to the fact that she is a Goth. She's not a stereotypical emo in the fact that she doesn't hate herself and would never kill or cut herself. She thinks self cutting is stupid and pointless. Sure she complains about her life but she knows that it could be so much worse and in a way she's grateful for what she has, she just never talks about it. Unlike the stereotype she doesn't think of life as depressing and pointless, to it annoying and it's not life itself that annoys her, it's the people around her. Most emos in fan fiction come into a room with their wrists bleeding to try to get attention but Morgan keeps things to herself mostly, if you look back you'll notice that most of her complaining in internal monologue. She looks like a stereotype now because she hasn't relaxed at all. You'll get to see more of her personality as the story goes on. Morgan isn't depressed, just grumpy.

I'm not going to tone down the first chapter for a reason. Again, it has to do with her character. Her problem is that she tries too hard to be morbid just to prove what a rebel she is.

Anne Rose: Thanks, enjoy the new chapter

Terrenchi: Thanks. I always thought that esky sounded a bit weird. It's obvious what cooler means, but I always wondered where the word "esky" came from.

Sorry I can't get it into seperate paragraphs, it won't save the paragraphs for some reason

Chapter 2

My first reaction was to shove Nicole behind me and snarl, if I kept her busy it would give Nicole time to run. The bitch stabbed at me with a sword but before it made contact it was blocked by another. Honestly, who on earth carries a sword in this day and age?

"Karen, down girl!" The second speaker was a short Japanese woman in rough leather armour with short black hair, identical to the bitch who just tried to kill me. I was impressed, I hadn't even heard her coming.

"Would someone just explain this to me?" I was starting to get pissed off. "And who the hell are you?" What the hell had I done to deserve getting killed?

My rescuer blinked.

"I'm Anna. Never mind, it won't happen again." Then she looked at my clothes. Oh great here it comes, the whole "oh dear she's dressed in black, she probably hangs out in graveyards and sacrifice baby bunnies to Satan" looks I usually get from the elderly.

"You're not from here are you?"

"No fucking duh. And where is here exactly?" I know I was being rude but I have the bad habit of swearing and lashing out when I'm scared.

"Middle Earth."

"You're bullshitting me."

"No, unfortunately not."

You could have pushed me over with a feather. I thought that somehow we could have ended up in a different country but a different time zone?

"Normally I'd spend the next five minutes arguing with myself and not believing you but unfortunately it does make a kind of weird sense." I explained what had happened.

"I'd better take you to my friends, we might be able to help you."

"No!" Karen wailed." They're Mary Sues, I know they are! They're trying to trick you!"

"We'll let the others decide. We can't leave them here."

"What's happening? Why did you try to hurt us?" Nicole turned on her "cute little girl" charm she uses around adults.

Anna sighed.

"You've stumbled into the middle of a war that's been going on for a very long time. If you don't come with us they will get you."

"And who is they?" I asked.

"Them. The enemy. If you're lucky they'll kill you."

"What do you mean if we're lucky?"

"They can do things to you that are much worse. I'm sorry Karen tried to kill you but she thought you were one of them."

"They are." Karen insisted.

"Karen won't be convinced until you come with us and I convince the others you're innocent. If the enemy don't get you Karen will."

I wanted to run, if there was a war going on I didn't want to take sides. I didn't want to die, I just wanted to go home. Maybe if we ran we could find the cave again.

"Come on Nicole." I sighed. In any case they were both armed and could just take us by force.

"I don't want to go with these people if they're going to kill us." She glared. Sensible girl.

"We're not going to kill you." I could hear the tense patience in Anna's voice. "If you don't come with us the enemy will get you." She repeated.

"How do I know you're not fibbing?"

"Unfortunately we don't have a choice." I told her. "We can't get back home remember? I promise nothing bad will happen." I knelt down and put my hands on her shoulders.

"You promise?" She asked.

"I promise."

"Okay." She said slowly.

Karen glared at me.

I felt like Gimli in Lothlorian.

"We should blindfold them." Karen suggested.

"No Karen. Either they're Sues and we deal with it or they're not and we can trust them. They're not sues, I can tell. You'd be able to tell too if you tried."

No chance in hell this bitch was putting a blindfold on me. If she was going to try to kill me I wanted to be able to see her

I can't remember how long we walked, I wouldn't remember the way anyway so blindfolding me would have been a waste of time. Nicole complained after a while about her legs hurting and asking how much further it was, I could see Anna getting annoyed. Nicole wasn't whining at her, she was whining at me mostly because she was scared of Anna and Karen but they had to listen to it all the same.

_Well cry me a river and get over it,_ I thought. I could tell that Anna didn't like complainers and I would have been more sympathetic if I wasn't in such a grouchy mood but it was painful obvious that she had never been on a long trip with small children before. Nicole was keen to explore the wilderness at home but this was different. When she was exploring she could go where she wanted and turn back when she felt like it. This was like a long car trip with no car.

I've suffered worse trust me. You try going on a six hour car ride with her, it's all complaining "how much further" and non stop talking. You think that would encourage our parents not to take road trips any more but no such luck. I hated that holiday, we drove for six hours to a caravan park that was about as attractive as bum (1) hair and we stayed there for a week and drove all the way back. I almost murdered her. I wanted to fly but dad maintained the attitude that driving was better because it was more of an experience. Yeah, more of an experience of how many different ways I can kill you. I get grumpier on car trips because we're all trapped together with no escape.

Finally we got to their camp, though to call it a camp wasn't much a description, it was just a burned out fire in a pit surrounded by piles of blankets.

Near the fire stood the largest woman I have ever seen dressed in simple brown pants and a shirt. She reminded me of a bear, big, burly and not very attractive. She was almost over seven feet tall there didn't seem to be an inch of flab on this woman, she was all muscle like a female body builder. I wondered if she had ever taken steroids but rejected the thought, the muscles would have made anyone else look like a freak but on her they seemed natural somehow.

Her muscular arms were burdened with wood. She defiantly wasn't very attractive but it didn't bother me as I'm not very flash myself. Normally it wasn't the sort of thing I noticed but on her it was kinda obvious she wasn't going to win a beauty competition some time soon. She had tiny eyes and a large nose that looked like it had been broken at least twice, her mouth was large with thin lips and she had a scar across her nose and one that stretched across her cheek and across the corner of her mouth. Beside her lay a loaded crossbow. Unlike long bows crossbows could be strung and set aside, long bow strings always stretch if they are left on the bow for too long. At least that's what I've heard.

"So glad you could join us." She dumped the wood in the fire pit. "Who are these people?" She looked at us.

"Sues." Karen hissed.

"People we found." Anna continued as if her sister hadn't spoken. "Karen won't rest until they've been officially examined."

"Hello little mousie." The large woman grinned at me and I noticed a gap between her two front teeth. "Cat got your tongue?"

I hadn't noticed I was staring.

"She has that effect on us all." A man laughed and gave me a friendly slap on the shoulder. Oh that is it, I decided that I was going to tie bells to everyone. If there's one thing I hate it's people sneaking up on me. Or better still maybe they'd teach me and I could use it on Nicole.

"Get Crow for us would you? We need the whole group here."

Anna asked the man standing beside me.

"Already here." A boy my own age came out of the forest. He was dressed in black robes that were belted at the waist, his shoes were dark leather. He had black hair that was rough at the end as if it had been cut by a blind man with a dagger, his eyes were an amazing shade of electric blue which looked stunning against the black. In his hand he held a black staff with a dark crystal on top.

"So what's the drama?" He asked.

"Karen and I found these two in the woods. Karen thinks they are sues. They're from your time." Anna explained.

I was really starting to get impatient.

"Listen." I interrupted. "I think I've been really good about all this but I'm not standing here another god damn second unless I get some fucking answers!" I was on the verge of screaming, releasing all the rage and anger I had kept locked up. A bad habit of mine, I remember a time at school a few years ago when a girl that looked like a Barbie clone was a complete bitch to me, the most I did was insult her and give her attitude with the majority of my rage locked up until one day I punched her in the face.

She left the next day and I have never seen her since.

The boy called Crow pointed his staff at the pile of wood and it burst into flames.

"Okay." He wasn't even looking at me. "I remember how confused I was in your position."

They introduced themselves. They used nicknames for their own bizarre reasons, seemed a little flashy and try too hard if you ask me. Personally I thought it was a bit dumb. Crow said it was to stop the enemy from finding out their true identities. It felt strange calling someone an animal and they let me call them by their real names on the condition I used the code names in public and around the sues.

"I'm Falcon." The man who had slapped me on the shoulder didn't tell me his real name.

"The giant over there is the bear. Sometimes we call her mother bear or grizzly." He pointed to the large woman who called me "mousie." "Her real name is Helen Troy."

I chose not to comment.

"Part giant." She corrected him. "My grandmother." Considering the legends about giants I was surprised she would admit something like that so easily. Well that seemed to explain a lot. "I was born in Tortal." (2)

"The Tamora Pearce story?" I asked.

She nodded. "I was the Shang Bear."

"If you came from another universe, how did you end up here?" It also made her name more of a bizarre co-incidence.

"I was hunting sues there when the head hunter suggested I help out here."

"You know Crow. He was born in your world, he was born with the power to cross over and travel between the worlds, he came here and was trained to be a wizard." Falcon interrupted. "He was dangerously close to being a Gary Stu when we found him."

"Anna and Karen were known as Kestrel and Viper. Now Karen only responds to her name she hasn't been called Viper in a while. They were a perfect team when Karen was sane."

"We travelled the space universes, Star Trek and the like. The head hunter decided threat we should spend some time on solid ground." Anna informed me.

"What happened to Karen?" I asked.

"We'll get to that later." Anna, sorry, Kestrel promised. I could tell this was going to get confusing. I wondered if they would wear name tags but decided not to ask.

"So what are you?" I asked.

"We are the hunters. We are Mary Sue hunters, and Mary Sues fear any animal that is wild, dangerous and not cute." Helen grinned. She had a point.

"Mary Sue hunters?" Where had I heard the term before? Now I remembered. "You mean not only am I stuck in a fictional universe but I'm trapped in a fan fiction? Is that even possible?"

"It was a real event." Anna told me. "In your world it didn't happen but there is another reality in which Tolkein's story really did happen"

"What are you talking about?" Nicole asked.

"For every life changing decision you make, the other decision is played out in another universe. These are other dimensions. When a life changing decision affects the world as a whole and not just your life it's called a parallel universe, some parallel universes aren't even based on a decision, they're just alternate realities. Sometimes people start writing about stories unaware that they're not just writing a story, they're writing about a universe that actually exists. Tolkein was one of these people as well as JK Rowling."

So I wasn't in a fiction universe, just an alternate reality. It made a bizarre kind of sense.

"You know what Mary Sues are?" I nodded.

"Fictional characters who are way too perfect and destroy the original story beyond recognition." I shuddered to think those vile creatures actually existed.

Anna nodded. "Like professional writers Mary Sue writers aren't just writing about another reality, they're creating one."

"Pardon?" This wasn't making a lot of sense to me.

"For every story that is written there is a universe where it happens. Weather it's another dimension, a parallel universe or in Helen's case, another world entirely."

"I was wondering about Helen. In my world tortall is a fiction place."

"It is." Anna told me.

"Pardon?"

"When a writer writes a story that is purely of their own invention, a universe is created in which it actually happens." Crow continued. "The badly written ones are unstable and implode on themselves after a while, how long a universe lasts depends on how well it is written it is, because the better written it is the more detailed and real it becomes. That's why the bad ones implode after a while, not enough effort is being poured into it and there is a minimum standard for a world to become real and last."

"Stories like Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter universe will last forever because they're so good they have become real and the fans became so convinced that it was real that it contributed to the solidness of the world to the point where even if everyone suddenly forgot about Middle Earth it would still continue to exist." Anna again. But on the other hand if a teenage girl writes a poorly written unconvincing Mary Sue story and keeps it in her cupboard then it will destroy it self pretty quickly. Fan fictions are already unstable because the writer didn't actually create the world they are writing about and they don't know the characters quite as well though it can last as long as an original story if it is very well done. Mary Sue fan fictions are a lot unstable than original Mary Sue stories, there are a large amount of original stories that contain Mary Sues that go unnoticed because it's assumed they're not doing any damage because all the characters and the universe are original and it's assumed that they're not doing any damage and they fit into an original universe, they're not a foreign object."

_Like the immune system_ I realised. A Mary Sue was like a disease and a story like a body and the hunters like an immune system. If the Mary Sue virus infected a healthy story the story would either die or be damaged if the disease got what it wanted. Like a body suffering from a disease, the body would slowly disintegrate and die if the disease was allowed to run its course. An original story with a Mary Sue was like a healthy carrier. Like Typhoid Mary, a person who carried the disease but didn't suffer the symptoms and didn't die even if she gave the disease to other people.

"So Mary Sue haters can have confidence that all Mary Sues eventually destroy themselves and if a character is corrupted by them at least their original self is safe in the original world." So I wasn't in the real middle earth but just a copy of it? Copy or not, this place was real and that's what they had been trying to tell me. I saw fan fictions like tree branches, the fact they were fan fictions prevented them from being individual trees. They were branches supported by the trunk of the tree which I saw as the original story. What a Mary Sue did in her own "branch" didn't effect other braches or the home trunk but it didn't make the pain she caused any less real.

"You'd think so, but this is where the hunters come in." Falcon spoke up. "Some Mary Sues become so powerful that they do so much damage that we can't just wait for the story to destroy itself and in some rare cases the Mary Sue becomes so powerful that she is able to escape her home world before it is destroyed. In even rarer cases the world isn't destroyed because the writer actually knows what she is doing and the writing is good enough for her world to actually exist permanently."

"So where do they go to?" I asked. "The one's who escape?"

"Here." Helen told me. "There's a whole army of them somewhere nearby. We were hoping they'd end up killing each other, if there's one thing a Sue hates it's competition. On the rare occasion you find more than one Sue in a fic there are only two of them and it's because they both like two different men and they're not a threat to each other and they're usually best friends. In this situation however you've got too many of them for there not to be competition. However they seem to be good at working together to a certain level in this situation. I wish I knew why."

"Their leader probably. The leader is probably smart, smart enough to get the other sues to listen to her."

"So you're sure we're not them?"

"Extremely." Falcon laughed. "You are definitely not a sue. You're no where near attractive enough, you have an attitude problem, you're smart and if you'd been a sue you would have known who were and either attacked or run for it and not once have you used the word "like." Karen was just being paranoid." I chose not to comment on his comment about my looks. I knew I was unattractive one afternoon at a family barbeque when my Aunt commented "Pity she's so ugly. She'll never get married if she doesn't change her attitude." It had hurt at the time but eventually I tried not to care.

"So what's the problem with Karen?" I asked.

"Unfortunately some hunters go rabid after a while. They've seen so many sues that after a while they go insane and assume that any original female character is a sue. It doesn't matter what she looks like or her personality, they assume she's automatically a sue if she's female."

"That's not fair."

"We know it's not." Falcon continued. "Imagine a poor teenage girl who wants to be a writer so she starts off writing fan fictions to develop her talents but her dream is shot to ribbons because a rabid hunter saw that her character was female and flamed her without actually reading the story, analysing the character or giving her a chance to improve. A lot of fan fiction writers are girls and some writers tend to write about characters that are the same gender as them and sometimes from the same racial background, that's why a fan fiction writer might choose to write about a female character. It's easier and what if she got the character wrong and insulted someone? It's hard to write a character that's a different gender and do it convincingly, that's where JK Rowling succeeded"

"It also explains why most Mary Sues are white. I've never heard about an African American or a Native American sue and the only Asian sues I've heard about is on the rare occasion a writer chooses to give her Sue a different racial background on the stupid assumption that a different racial background is somehow going to make up for a sad lack of personality." Helen brought up. "It doesn't matter what colour her skin is, it doesn't change the fact that she's boring."

"I've seen plenty of good characters that aren't of the same background as the writer." Anna commented. "Not all people write about characters that are identical to themselves."

"Wasn't implying there weren't." Helen said. "I was only referring to the sues. Writing about a convincing character that is of a different gender or country is a great skill but you seem to be forgetting that sue writers aren't that good yet. To write about a character form a different background you really have to know what you're talking about to make it convincing, otherwise you'll just end up insulting someone. Writing about characters that are different from themselves is a skill they might learn later on in life but at the moment they're practising and while a writer is just developing his or her skills, it's easier to write about a character similar to themselves so they can concentrate on developing other writing techniques, only a majority of these self based characters become sues because either the writers are living out some kind of fantasy or they hadn't learned how to write about convincing characters yet. And we're not implying that it's unoriginal to write about a character that is of the same gender and background as the writer because most of these characters are different in personality and looks to the writer so it's still obvious that the character is not a clone of the author. I've seen some really good characters that the writers have based on themselves, it just takes a certain skill to do it right. Once a writer bases a character on herself she will be tempted to make everything too perfect and good and that's what separates the Mary Sues from other writer based characters."

"If the writer's don't know what they're doing, does that mean they are innocent?" I asked. Were Mary Sues evil if it wasn't their fault?

Crow shook his head. "Just because the writer doesn't know what she is doing, it doesn't mean the sue doesn't. Like Frankenstein, sometimes the writer's can't control their creations. Even if the writer has innocent intentions it doesn't change who the character is and the damage she is doing."

"Where ever you find a stereotype of a particular group of people you will always find an acceptation." I put forward. "Take my Aunt Flo for example. She wore a lot of pink including a horrible hairy cardigan I thought she should burn, but she wasn't a bimbo, she was the biggest feminist in our family and had the highest IQ. She is my favourite relative."

"I thought you hated pink?" Helen laughed.

"I'm not the typical pink hating goth." I told her. "It's not the colour itself I can't stand it's the people who usually use it. Not including Aunt Flo most of the people I knew who wore pink were idiots and I can't stand stupid people so now whenever I see pink it reminds me of the stupid people, I don't have anything against the colour itself, just the people who use it. It's not personal."

"As wonderful and meaningful this discussion is." Crow said sarcastically. "What has this got to do with the sues?"

"Helen was right about the sues." Anna got everyone back on track. "There are plenty of Asian and African fan fiction writers, they just seem to steer clear of Mary Sues for some reason. No one knows why."

"Maybe they're just smarter than us." Crow suggested and I didn't know weather or not he was kidding.

"Actually you guys only seem to patrol the ones that are written in English." I pointed out. "There could be plenty of Mary Sues that aren't from an English speaking country that you guys just aren't aware of because the story is written in another language and the fan fiction website organises the stories so that they're all with other stories written in the same language so it's easy for a user to find a story they can read."

Everyone looked at each other.

"We didn't think of that." Anna said softly. "There could be so many more than we have had to deal with so far."

"We'll tell the head hunter as soon as we wrap up everything here."

Later when we were going to sleep, Nicole curled up next to me, obviously scared but not wanted to admit it.

"Morgan, what are Mary Sues?" She obviously hadn't said anything in front of the hunters because she hadn't wanted to admit she didn't know what we were talking about.

"They're like living Barbie dolls. They look nice and perfect but underneath they are evil."

"How are they evil?" She asked.

"They kill people." It tried to explain it. "They live to get attention, they use magic to control people and they kill anyone who is a threat to them. If they like a man who is married they will murder his wife so they can have him." I gave her an example.

Nicole didn't say anything but she stayed awake for a long time.

(1) Butt

(2) Tortal is a medieval fantasy world created by Tamora Pierce. It's unique and interesting, the stories are very different from other fantasy stories and the characters are interesting and realistic. I highly recommend her stories. Giants exist in Tortall as well as many other magical creatures. There is a group of warriors called the Shang warriors where each member is named after an animal and they are trained in martial arts and to use all weapons. Helen is a character I created but never wrote about.

I'm sorry this chapter was kind of pointless, it was just everyone getting to know each other and everyone being brought up to speed on the situation. I promise there'll be some sue hunting and fighting in the next chapter. I know I've pointed out that most Mary Sues tend to be of the same racial background but I don't mean anything racist by it or anything. It's more of an observation.


	3. Crow

TEN: I find it funny that it never occurred to you that Crow was lying. Remember, like Morgon not calling herself a goth sometimes a flaw in a story can be a character flaw. I won't use the excuse of this being from another world because that would just be retarded. I think it's mention there somewhere that he was a Gary Stu when they found him. It's all explained in this chapter. The revelation of his past was originally intended to stretch across a few chapters but for your benefit I'll squash it all in here. I will however use the other world excuse for his name. Because he's from our world he sees crows differently. rather than seeing them as evil, he sees them as the messengers of death which is why he chose it in the first place. He also has a darker nature than the others which isn't showing through at the moment. I didn't call him Raven because it's a name I intend for someone else.

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that you that you misspelled pronunciation as pornunciation. Just a small typo but if you look closely, still pretty embarrassing. I'd make a joke about this but I won't.

bohemianblackbirdmuse: Thanks. I was trying to make her as different as possible. I'm also trying to make her relationship with Nicole realistic, the love/hate relationship that sisters sometimes have. Yes, Helen is supposed to sound like Helen of Troy. Morgon picked up on the name similarity and decided not to comment.

Chapter 3

I woke up alone, Nicole usually wakes up earlier than me along with the rest of the world.

"Bacon?" Helen asked cheerfully form the fire.

"Yes please." I yawned. Usually I'm a grumpy bitch in the morning but for some reason I wasn't now, somehow I got alone better with the hunters.

"Where's Nicole?" I asked looking around.

"I thought she was you." Helen frowned.

"Maybe she went exploring, she loves exploring."

"Well let's hope she hasn't gone too far." Anna's eyebrows crinkled together.

"Mnin." Crow grunted. His hair was a mess and he looked like he'd woken up after a wild night on the town. Like me, he was obviously a slow waker. He then mumbled something incoherent.

"Bacon." Helen replied.

"If the sues are looking for you won't they just have to follow the smoke?" I asked.

Falcon laughed. "They're too stupid. They'd rather look for us the boring way. Something they try to use their magical animal friends but usually their pets are brightly coloured. Good as decorations but useless as spies."

Looks over practicality, just like a sue. It explained why most of them wore dresses in the wilderness.

Should I look for Nicole? I was tempted to leave her in the wilderness and if she got into any trouble it would teach her a very hilarious lesson, but again, not too fond of being grounded. I was torn between basking in the Nicole/family free atmosphere I had been wishing for since I was nine years old and my responsibility as a sister. Maybe all those favours god owed me were finally coming and my wishes were starting to come true. If seven years is the waiting list for wishes I'd probably get a pet dragon or turn into a werewolf pretty soon.

That means I'd have to wait until I'm twenty two to get Ginger Snaps (1) on DVD.

Bummer.

"Maybe you should look for your sister?" Falcon made that decision for me.

"Oh great."

"I don't think it would be a good idea for you to run around yelling her name out, you'll either get lost or caught, both would be a stupid idea." Anna suggested. I remembered the scene where Merry and Pippin bumbled through the woods yelling out Frodo's name for all the orcs to hear, they might have been adorable but they sure weren't too bright.

"Can you scry for her?" Anna asked. Something bothered me about Crow.

Crow shook his head.

"I'd need a bowl of water or a mirror or something."

"There's a stream." Anna pointed.

He gave a look that said "can't it wait until after breakfast?" but he shut his mouth before he got the words out.

"I'll come with you." I told him. I was suspicious of him, when I had fallen asleep little details had been bothering me.

When we had reached a certain point from the camp I planted myself in front of him and crossed my arms. It was far enough that the hunter's wouldn't hear us but close enough that I could run if he attacked.

"What do you want?"

"Where are you really from?" I asked. "Who really trained you?"

"I was trained here." He blinked at me.

"I don't know much about Middle Earth magic except it was pretty much restricted to the elves and the wizards."

I had a friend Matt once who was obsessed with Lord of the Rings and I really wish I'd payed more attention.

"I am a wizard in case you haven't figured it out already." Patronising bastard.

"Middle Earth wizards can't scry." I accused. "I remember that Galadriel's mirror could see into the future, present and past which is kinda like scrying but she was a ring bearer, she wouldn't have received a power like that if any wizard could do it."

He was starting to look at me funny.

At the time I wanted to strangle Matt if it would shut him up but now I was grateful that he had taken particular interest in the wizards, and I was even more grateful that he talked about it non stop despite my threats.

"Apart from Saruman, Gandalf and that brown guy, there were two blue guys who had gone missing. A black wizard was never mentioned."

"Don't you remember the bit about black being a powerful colour like white?"

"No. I skimmed the book, not read. There's a difference. Someone with that kind of power defiantly would have been recorded somewhere."

"Not all of the events of Middle Earth were recorded. Tolkein was said to have found Bilbo's diary, he didn't find the great library."

Matt had definitely said at some point that the original wizards were angels, I remembered this because I also remembered retorting that if Gandalf was an angel the how could he die?

"If magic was an angel/elf thing, I can't imagine that it would be easy to teach to a mortal. You said you were born in my world so there's not way in heck you could even use the "I'm Gandalf's love child" excuse that Sues sometimes make. It seems to me that your magic is more like the magic from Helen's world and if you really do have the power to transport yourself it's possible." It seemed likely that he could have learned it there, he would have had to have started at an early age and somehow found the money to pay for his education, but I remembered that he had been a Gary Stu when they first found him so he would have found his way around the canon restrictions. He wore a black robe which was the most powerful rank in Tortall which meant that he would have been pretty damn powerful but Marty Stues are like that. After all, someone mentioned somewhere in the books that there were seven of them in world and only one of them was actually mentioned by Tamora Pierce at all that I'm aware of.

But why would he lie? No one would lie about their past like that unless they had bad memories or if he'd done something he wasn't proud of. I wondered if Helen suspected anything, but rejected the idea. She was a Shang warrior, the warriors had nothing to do with the wizards so she wouldn't know enough about magic to be suspicious and she might not have known enough about Middle Earth to think anything was wrong, Anna and Karen were on their first Middle Earth mission, and Falcon? Who knew about him? Did any of them know?

I'd read fan fictions about Mary Sue academies, if there was a similar system for Marty Stues, that's where he's probably learned it from. Maybe he signed up as a Tortall Marty Stu but something went wrong and he transferred to Middle Earth without getting his story straight. Did the others know? Probably not, I'd have to warn one of them. And if Karen was so rabid, why did she tolerate Crow? Maybe she was only suspicious of women. I really wished I'd thought this through before confronting him, but I think it was made very clear when I punched that girl in the face that forward thinking isn't my strong point. The smart thing to do would have been to talk to Helen and Falcon.

_God get me live through this and I swear I'll think next time._ Sometimes I really am too stupid.

He stared at me.

"You're right." He said eventually. "I'm not from Middle Earth, I'm from Helen's world."

"Then why lie?" I asked. I wasn't budging until I got answers.

"That's none of your business."

"I want to know." Curiosity killed the cat.

He sighed.

"I suppose you're not going to drop it?"

"No."

He sighed.

"Helen isn't the only Mary Sue hunter in Tortall. There were Marty Stu hunters. They don't believe that a Stu could ever reform and killing is the only option. They hunted me down and…I won't go into details. I wasn't the best Marty Stu, it caused me nothing but misery."

"Being an all powerful wizard and having beautiful women throw themselves at you must have been such a pain." I laughed sarcastically. He glared at me.

"When a Sue or a Stu graduates from the academy they are given a mission, usually a job to be the best at and someone they are mean to seduce. I won't tell you what my mission was but after a while it sort of fell apart. Understand this, a failed Sue or Stu is outcasted never to return. I came here and that's when this group of hunters found me. I was afraid they'd kill me so I convinced them that I was a character dangerously close to being a Marty Stu rather than a reformed one, rarely to Mary Sues and Marty Stues reform. They usually die."

"So you expect me to believe that you're mission failed."

"I'm not going to tell you the details." Stubborn. Maybe one day he'd tell me. He wasn't about to tell his most painful secret to a stranger, it was strange enough that he'd told me this much. Usually when a character pours his/her soul out to a stranger I always took it as a cheap trick used by the author so that the readers would find out about a character's mysterious past. In my own particular story I guess it would have been smarter to go to Helen and Falcon, but if they knew he was lying Karen might have killed him.

"But if you just wanted to be normal why did you tell everyone you were a wizard?"

"The hunters found me fighting some orcs. They saw the staff and the robes and drew their own conclusions."

"Right."

"Right. So do you want to find your sister or not?"

I was relieved that he hadn't tried to kill me or even gotten angry.

We walked to a stream where he closed his eyes and held his hands over the water. Soon a white light appeared in a circle on the water's surface. I moved close rbut I couldn't see anything besides the light.

Crow opened his eyes and stared.

"The sues have her."

(1) Ginger Snaps is a really gory werewolf movie.


End file.
